staff housing

Green Lake's staff housing heads for the hills
By Chris Woodall
Staff housing for Nicklaus North golf course and the Crystal Lodge expansion could escape the flood plain of Green Lake if municipal council approves a change in plans.
Up to 56 bed units could be involved, but approval speed is of the essence so construction by CRC Developments Ltd./Burrard International can begin at spring thaw, for completion by the 1997 ski season.
A Benchlands lot owned by Intrawest, next to Blackcomb Mountain staff housing, is at the top of the developers’ wish list.
A Nicklaus North site next to the golf course club house had been approved by council for some time to hold 32 bed units. But cramming the bed units onto the site created a number of problems that CRC Developments Ltd./Burrard International are happy to avoid.
Those bed units represent employee housing requirements for the golf course. CRC Developments Ltd./Burrard International must also provide 18 bed units or pay a works and service charge for those bed units in relation to their Crystal Lodge expansion.
Constructing a town home complex with 56 bed units combines all the requirements the developer has, plus a few more. The additions don't add incremental costs to the project.
"We thought that in order to get council to approve the change in location, we would add bed units to the plan," says Bill LeClair, vice-president of CRC Developments. "And it works better to configure the development with 56 bed units.
The Green Lake site was an unhappy best of a bad situation.
"We have a problem getting 32 bed units physically onto the site and it is a complicated site to flood proof," says LeClair.
The golf course site is further crowded by pedestrian trail, golf cart and vehicle traffic, as well as the busy BC Rail tracks behind the site.
The company has been looking at a variety of alternate locations since the summer.
"We had gone back to council earlier in the year to tell them we have a problem here (at the Green Lake site), but alternate sites available then weren't appropriate," says LeClair.
The potential solution that has emerged is for CRC Developments/Burrard International to buy an Intrawest property on the Benchlands near Blackcomb Mountain's staff housing complex.
Council has given the companies until March, 1997, to secure an alternate site. Provided CRC Developments/Burrard International satisfy municipal planning staff, the developer can then go ahead with construction.
The Green Lake site would convert to open space and some previously planned private residential development, says LeClair.